Years ago, say 2,800 or so, a fire would burn continuously during the original Olympic Games, set in a beautiful valley in what would become Greece. The reason for the flames, some classics scholars say, lies in the myth of Prometheus, a Titan who got in trouble for stealing fire from Zeus and bringing it to mankind's huddled masses.

We received the gift of fire; Prometheus was pinned to a rock by an angry Zeus. His punishment was to have his liver eaten daily by eagles, before it regenerated each night. The original Olympic flame is a reflection of the esteem the Greeks had for Prometheus (translation: "forethought"), and the Olympic flame that will be lighted Aug. 5 in Rio de Janerio to open the 2016 Games — the culmination of a world-wide torch relay — continues this tradition.

On Thursday, we get a chance to see our own Olympic torch and Olympians at the annual Olympic Day celebration held in conjunction with the bi-weekly Boulder Road Runners summer track series. The event starts with music and registration at 5:30 p.m. at the University of Colorado's Potts Field track. It is a nice opportunity to mingle with a variety of Olympians in sports ranging from cycling, speed skating and the marathon, to wheelchair racing and the discus throw.

According to organizer Deb Conley, the Boulder Road Runners' Olympic Day event is one of roughly 2,000 taking place around the U.S., all celebrating the spirit of the Olympic Games — a spirit that embodies human beings' highest and noblest values.

"The goal of Boulder's Olympic Day is to honor and celebrate sport and those people who inspire us to pursue our own dreams regardless of circumstances and to celebrate the commonalities of athletes around the world of all ages and abilities," said Conley, a former CU track runner and head of event co-sponsor Lending Sight, an organization which pairs visually impaired runners with running helpers.

Back in 2012, Conley suffered a major hamstring tear, completely detaching her semitendinosus and semimembranosus muscles from her pelvis and severing the adductor magnus muscle on her left leg. Her recovery, after a two-month hospital stay, continues today. An important part of Conley's healing was the kind and inspiring words spoken to her by Olympic marathoner Frank Shorter not long after the accident.

"Frank told me, 'don't let anyone define your determination or ability to recover nor let them define your limitations,' " Conley said, adding that this came after someone told her she would never run again — a statement that brought her to tears, until she talked with Shorter.

Shorter is just one of the roughly two dozen Olympians expected to show up for Thursday's track meet and celebration. Some like Colleen De Reuck, Lorraine Moller, Arturo Barrios and Nadia Prasad, are well-known. Others, like Kevin Brausard, visually impaired discus world record holder, are not, although they excel in their sports just as much. (Don't expect Prometheus to attend; it might be hard for him to get away).

"I have been extremely happy with how it has grown and how welcoming Boulder has been," said Conley. "Where else are you going to see 20-30 Olympians a couple of feet away? These are people I watched on TV and who were my idols, and now we can have so many in one place and to look back and remember what they did in their event in history, and how they changed their sport and society."

One of the highlights of the 2015 Olympic Day, it turned out, was a 1984 Olympic torch, kept by Boulder's Amie Durden, who received it after being part of the Olympic torch relay.

"One of the most memorable parts of last year's event was seeing the expressions and reactions of people when they came to view Amie's Olympic torch," said Conley. "The immediate impulse is to touch it, pick it up and raise it high, as seen in the many depictions of the ideals of the Olympics. Having this torch to display made the Olympic ideals and spirit tangible in a real way."

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